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HE  PERFORMANCE  OF  POLITICAL  DUTIES 

THE  GREAT  NEED  of  the  PRESENT  DAY. 


ADDRESS 

DELIVERED    BEFORE  THE 

Literary  Societies  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina, 
AT  Chapel  Hill,  June  6th,  1883, 

By   Hon.  THOMAS  C.  MANNING,  LL.  D. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Dialectic 

and  PhilantJwopic  Societies, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — 
I  wish  to  speak  to  you  to-day 
on  a  practical  subject — the  du- 
ties of  citizenship:  There  can  be 
no  greater  mistake  than  to  sup- 
pose that  political  duties  are  con- 
fined to  one  class  of  citizens,  or 
that  a  proper  and  diligent  perfor- 
mance of  them  is  the  special  obli- 
gation of  those  who  seek  or  occu- 
py public  place.  There  has  grown 
up  in  our  country  a  sentiment  that 
active  participation  in  public  af- 
fairs implies  in  some  sort  a  degra- 
dation of  one's  personality,  and  it 
seems  to  be  assumed  that  the  con- 
secration of  a  man's  life  to  the 
public  service  is  a  waste  of  resour- 
ces that  would  be  better  employed 
in  other  channels  of  activity. 
The  consequence  is  that  politics 


as  a  science  and  a  pursuit  has 
been  separated  from  its  higher 
functions,  and  has  come  to  mean 
something  ignoble  and  unworthy 
of  men  who  are  scholarly,  pure, 
and  bent  upon  the  attainment  of 
high  and  noble  ends. 

And  yet  no  one  knows  better 
than  the  scholar  that  no  country 
has  ever  attained  exalted  rank 
among  the  nations  except  through 
the  services  of  its  great  men,  and 
the  greatness  of  its  men  has  con- 
sisted in  the  dedication  of  them- 
selves to  their  country's  service 
— in  their  abnegation  of  self,  their 
repudiation  of  personal  aims,  and 
the  consecration  of  their  lives  to 
the  promotion  of  the  public  wel- 
fare. 

Do  not  let  us  fall  into  the  error 
of  supposing  that  the  ancients  had 
a  monopoly  of  civic  virtue,  or  that 


to 


V 


The  Performance  of  Political  Duties 


the  world  ceases  to  produce  men 
equal  to  any  in  the  past,  as  well 
fitted  as  they  to  the  conduct  of 
affairs,  as  well  able  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  State,  as  well  adapted 
to  the  circumstances  of  their  time 
as  those  whose  names  are  written 
on  historic  rolls  and  whose  ca- 
reers are  subjects  of  our  study, 
our  admiration  and  our  imitation. 
It  is  true  that  nations  fail  to  re- 
produce great  characters,  but  it  is 
equally  true  that  such  barenness 
marks  unmistakably  a  nation's  de- 
cadence, and  indicates  its  not  re- 
mote extinction. 

But  great  men  are  only  a  pro- 
duct of  a  nation's  force,  the  evolu- 
tion from  its  active  qualities  of  in- 
telligence, elevation  of  character, 
noble  purpose,  lofty  aspiration. 
There  are  great  occasions — crises 
in  a  nation's  history — when  one 
man  steps  out  as  it  were  from  the 
womb  of  time  and  impresses  him- 
self upon  the  nation's  character, 
and  draws  upward  to  himself  the 
body  of  his  fellow-men,  raises 
them  to  the  higher  plane  whereon 
he  moves.  But  as  a  general  thing 
great  men  are  the  legitimate  off- 
spring of  the  time  in  which  they 
live,  and  are  moulded  by  the  for- 
ces at  work  within  the  people  that 
has  produced  them. 

We  should  be  very  loth  to  ad- 
mit that  the  galaxy  of  men  who 
crowned  the  work  of  our  revolu- 
tion by  establishing  the  govern- 
ment, under  which  we  have  lived 


so  happily  tind  have  thrived  so 
well,  were  inferior  to  any  of  a 
preceeding  age.  We  are  in  the 
habit  of  referring  to  the  age  in 
which  they  lived  and  moved  as 
the  halcyon  days  of  the  Republic, 
and  we  depreciate  the  present  and 
accuse  our  own  times  of  depravity 
and  self  seeking.  If  the  charge  be 
well  founded,  it  behooves  us  to 
apply  a  remedy,  and  therefore  I 
know  of  no  subject  more  worthy 
of  your  attention  right  now  than 
the  ascertainment  of  the  po- 
litical duties  of  the  present  hour. 
It  will  of  course  be  understood 
that  I  am  speaking  of  politics  not 
in  a  partism  sense,  and  that  I  shall 
use  the  word  democracy  not  in  its 
restricted  meaning  as  disignating 
a  party,  but  as  expressing  that 
system,  or  set  of  principles,  which 
has  as  its  basis  the  cardinal  dog- 
ma that  the  people  is  the  source 
of  all  political  power,  and  its  well 
being  the  chief  end  and  aim  of 
government. 

Democracy  constructs  its  sys- 
tem upon  the  theory  that  the  peo- 
ple are  pure,  that  they  know  their 
wants,  and  will  not  permit  the 
forms  of  government  to  be  applied 
to  other  purposes  than  their  ben- 
efit. Details  are  worked  out  in 
different  ways  according  to  the 
genius  and  temper  of  different 
peoples,  influenced  by  present 
needs  and  affected  in  a  great  de- 
gree by  their  previous  histories. 
But  the  underlying  principle  per- 


THE  Great  Need  of  the  Present  Day. 


meates  the  whole  system,  that  the 
people  govern  themselves,  and 
when  a  government  constructed 
on  that  principle  becomes  corrupt, 
it  must  needs  be  that  the  people 
have  become  corrupt  long  before, 
or  that  they  have  grown  indiffer- 
ent. And  the  consequences  are 
equally  pernicious  whether  the 
corruption  of  the  government 
proceeds  from  the  one  cause  or 
the  other.  It  is  not  possible  for 
us  to  admit  that  corruption  has 
become  so  widespread  that  it  has 
infected  the  whole  body  of  our 
people.  There  is  not  sufficient 
ground  for  such  assumption,  but 
the  decay  of  public  purity  is  so 
universally  admitted,  and  the 
modes  of  political  action  are  so 
generally  condemned  as  denoting 
political  depravity,  that  it  has 
grown  into  an  axiom  that  political 
morals  have  a  different  code  from 
personal  morals,  and  that  a  pub- 
lic man  may  do  in  the  domain  of 
statesmanship  what  he  would  re- 
fuse to  do  in  the  governance  of 
his  private  life. 

Now  it  is  not  my  purpose  to 
enter  the  field  of  disputation,  and 
endeaver  to  demonstrate  the  un- 
soundness of  this  theory.  I  do 
not  think  it  obtains  among  the 
masses,  nor  that  any  public  man 
of  America  would  be  willing  to 
own  that  he  accepted  it  as  a  rule 
for  his  own  guidance. 

The  old-world  theory  that  gov- 
ernments  are   instituted   for   the 


benefit  of  the  governors,  whose 
main  duty  is  to  keep  the  governed 
in  subjection,  was  exploded  with 
terrific  violence  by  the  French 
Revolution.  That  followed  close 
upon  the  struggle  made  upon  our 
own  soil.  No  doubt  the  success- 
ful assertion  made  here  of  the 
democratic  principle  was  the  spark 
that  kindled  that  conflagration. 
But  how  different  the  methods  of 
the  two  peoples,  and  how  different 
the  results!  Here  an  orderly, 
practical  working  out  of  the  prin- 
ciple to  its  legitimate  results! 
There  a  fierce  and  rampant  icono- 
clasm  which  destroyed  for  the 
mere  sake  of  destroying.  Here 
a  systematic  construction  of  a  po- 
litical edifice,  symmetrical  and 
well  arranged,  thoroughly  adapt- 
ed to  its  purpose.  There  a  con- 
geries of  ill-digested  theories,  the 
vain  attempt  of  idealists  to  satisfy 
practical  wants  by  brilliant  and 
imposing  generalizations.  Here 
all  good  common  sense.  There 
all  sound  and  fury,  signifying 
nothing. 

A  century  has  passed  by  and 
the  same  contrast  with  some  of  its 
outlines  perhaps  a  little  faded, 
confronts  the  world  to-day. 
France-  again  boasts  a  republic 
without  really  understanding  what 
the  word  means,  and  with  no  con- 
ception of  that  orderly  and  well 
regulated  liberty  which  is  now  so 
completely  domesticated  here  that 
it  seems  as  if  it  were  an  instinct. 


The  Performance  of  Political  Duties 


Of  course  we  owe  our  political 
conceptions  in  some  degree  to 
race.  Enthusiastic  youth  is  apt 
to  suppose  that  America  is  the 
birthplace  of  liberty,  and  Fourth 
of  July  orators  have  told  us  with 
endless  iteration  that  but  for  our 
revolt  of  the  last  century  the 
world  would  yet  be  sunk  in  leth- 
argy and  the  people  be  bound 
even  now  with  chains.  No  Amer- 
ican having  the  just  pride  in  his 
country  that  he  should  have, 
Avould  disparage  the  splendid 
achievements  of  those  whom  with 
loving  homage  we  call  the  fathers 
of  our  country,  but  the  spirit  of 
liberty  was  implanted  in  us  by  an 
ancestry  that  extended  back  to  a 
period  before  the  first  immigrant 
turned  his  face  hitherward,  and  it 
grew  and  strengthened  until  it 
found  here  opportunity  for  its  full 
development  into  that  stately  tree 
underneath  whose  branches  we 
sit  to-day.  How  crude  our  first 
conceptions  were  is  manifest  from 
the  spirit  which  prompted  the 
first  enactments  of  some  of  our 
infant  colonies.  The  motive  for 
immigration  at  first  was  not  so 
much  freedom  of  political  action 
as  of  religious  belief,  but  no  soon- 
er had  they  attained  this  boon  for 
themselves  than  they  proceeded 
to  deprive  every  one  else  of  it. 
Religious  liberty  with  them  meant 
liberty  to  believe  what  they 
taught,  and  though  we  smile  at 
this   inconsistency,  and  recognize 


how  illogical  were  these  good 
people,  I  am  afraid  we  have  even 
at  this  day  some  leaven  of  that 
sturdy  refusal  to  accord  to  every 
one  the  right  to  follow  whereso- 
ever his  convictions  lead  him  in 
that  field  of  inquiry. 

The  spread  of  democratic  ideas 
throughout  the  world  during  the 
century  has  been  marvelous,  and 
is  the  central  fact  in  modern 
civilization  and  modern  govern- 
ment. It  does  not  necessarily 
follow  that  they  necessitate  a 
government  conformable  in  name 
to  them.  Their  influence  silently 
changes  the  practical  working  of 
government,  though  the  name  of 
and  fact  of  monarchy  remains. 
Great  Britain  is  a  conspicuous  ex- 
ample of  the  existence  of  a  re- 
public in  fact  under  a  monarchy 
in  name.  The  fine  phrase  of  M. 
Theirs  aptly  and  pithily  expresses 
the  fact  and  theory— the  Queen 
reigns  but  does  not  govern.  That 
liberty-loving  and  sensible  people 
has  gradually  and  patiently  evolv- 
ed a  system  which  accomplishes 
in  an  orderly  way  what  no  other 
nation  has  ever  done  in  a  like  de- 
gree— the  immediate  realization 
of  the  people's  will,  so  as  to  effect 
an  instant  change  in  the  whole 
personnel  and  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment, whenever  the  people's 
body — the  Commons'  House — so 
declare. 

The  Premier,  with  his  whole 
body  of  colleagues,  must  bow  be- 


THE  Great  Need  of  the  Present  Day. 


5 


fore  an  adverse  vote  of  the  Com- 
mons, if  g'iven  upon  a  cabinet 
question,  and  give  place  to  the 
party  that  has  overthrown  him. 
The  Commons  has  become  so 
completely  the  governing  power 
that  it  is  now  an  accepted  consti- 
tutional principle  that  the  other 
House  must  agree  with  it  upon 
any  vital  measure.  Theoretically 
the  Lords  is  a  co-equal  branch  of 
the  legislature,  and  does  refuse  to 
concur  in  bills  that  are  not  re- 
garded as  of  supreme  importance, 
but  on  all  matters  of  sufficient 
gravity  to  awaken  the  public  con- 
science and  interest,  the  Lords 
must  give  way.  And  this  is  not 
from  any  lack  of  ability.  The 
debaters  in  the  Lords  upon  any 
great  occasion — -the  field-nights 
of  the  session — will  not  lose  by 
comparison  with  the  Commons, 
even  when  the  Commons  is  at  its 
best. 

We  should  he  appalled  if  any 
one  should  advance  the  theory 
that  our  Senate  ought  to  exercise 
only  nominal  functions,  and  that 
its  duty  was  to  yield  its  own  con- 
victions to  those  of  the  other 
branch  of  Congress.  And  noth- 
ing better  illustrates  the  inability 
of  Frenchmen  to  comprehend  the 
nature  of  a  republic  governed  by 
a  fixed  law  than  the  attempt  of 
Gambetta  to  abolish  the  French 
senate  because  it  would  not  adopt 
his  project  for  changing  the  elec- 
toral law.    Centralized  authority, 


as  the  governing  power,  the  au- 
tocracy of  a  single  will,  is  the  an- 
tipodal conception  to  government 
by  the  will  of  the  nation. 

The  first  duty  of  the  men  of  the 
present  day  is  to  elevate  the  tone 
of  public  morals,  to  infuse  into  the 
people  a  higher  sense  of  political 
obligations,  to  dethrone  venalty, 
and  to  teach  the  coming  genera- 
tion that  they  should  no  more 
tolerate  politcal  than  personal 
immorality,  and  that  a  man  who 
is  not  worthy  of  social  respect 
does  not  deserve  political  eleva- 
tion. This  cannot  be  accomplish- 
ed without  the  aid  of  the  culti- 
vated intellect  of  the  nation 
coming  to  the  rescue,  and  the 
accomplishment  of  it  cannot  be 
omitted  without  danger  to  the 
institutions  under  which  we  pro- 
fess to  be  proud  to  live.  And 
this  is  my  reason  and  my  excuse 
for  departing  from  the  usual  course 
of  selecting  literary  themes  for 
such  an  occasion  as  this,  and  pre- 
ferring to  obtrude  upon  your  con- 
sideration a  great  and  absorbing 
practical  question  that  ought  to 
receive  the  well  considered  atten- 
tion of  scholars,  not  less  than  of 
those  who  are  concerned  more 
immediately  with  the  performance 
of  political  functions. 

The  basis  of  all  high  character 
is  honesty— honesty  in  the  larger 
sense  of  the  word — not  only  hon- 
esty in  that  sense  which  means 
payment  of  monetary  obligations, 


The  Performance  of  Political  Duties 


though  that  is  the  foundation  of 
honesty  in  all  other  things,  but 
straight  -forwardness  in  action, 
sincerity  in  thought  and  speech, 
purity  of  motive,  all  of  which 
bring  elevation  of  character.  You 
at  once  admit  that  he  who  is 
groveling  in  his  aims,  insincere 
in  his  purposes,  and  dishonest  in 
his  dealings,  is  not  worthy  of  asso- 
ciation in  the  every-day  concerns 
of  life.  Why  should  you  tolerate 
such  characteristics  in  him  who  is 
to  fill  places  of  honor,  power  and 
responsibility  .'' 

The  masses  receive  tone  and 
bias  from  those  who  are  on  a 
higher  plane  than  themselves. 
Corruption  never  commences  be- 
low and  proceeds  thence  upwards. 
The  upper  strata  of  society  takes 
the  infection  first,  and  the  poison 
diffuses  through  that  layer  of  the 
organism  before  it  penetrates  the 
vitals  of  the  body  politic.  The 
cure  must  be  applied  where  the 
disease  originated,  and  the  heal- 
thy sentiment  of  those  who  first 
gave  way  to  the  improper  tenden- 
cy must  first  be  restored  before 
any  perceptible  impression  can  be 
made  on  those  who  receive  instead 
of  originating  ideas. 

That  there  is  a  public  and  gen- 
eral recognition  of  decadence  in 
public  morals  is  apparent  from 
the  fact  that  accusations  against 
public  men  receive  immediate 
credence.  The  belief  that  thye 
will  and  do  act   from  corrupt  or 


selfish  motives  is  so  deeply  seated 
that  the  public  conscience,  instead 
of  being  surprised  at  the  charge 
of  venality,  accepts  it  as  true 
without  waiting  for  proof  of  it. 
It  seems,  so  to  speak,  natural  that 
they  should  be  swayed  by  personal 
and  unworthy  motives,  and  there- 
fore when  any  charge  of  a  specific 
act  is  made,  the  public  jumps  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  is  true. 
Much  of  this  must  be  laid  to  the 
account  of  human  nature.  It  is 
very  sad  to  know  that  the  appe- 
tite for  scandal  is  so  keenly  witted 
that  men  more  readily  believe  ill 
of  their  fellows  than  good.  It  is 
so  delightful  for  those  below  to 
pull  down  those  that  are  above. 
Our  self  complacency  is  gratified 
in  believing  that  others  are  no 
better  than  ourselves,  and  there 
seems  to  be  implanted  in  us  a 
distrust  of  apparent  qualities  in 
others  that  separate  them  from 
ourselves  by  the  possession  of  no- 
bler instincts  and  spirations  than 
we  feel  in  our  own  breasts.  But 
after  giving  due  weight  to  this 
tendency  there  is  in  the  present 
proneness  to  believe  ill  of  those 
who  conduct  public  affairs  a  man- 
ifestation of  conviction  that  it  is 
their  normal  condition. 

And  after  all  there  is  the  hu- 
miliating consciousness  that  there 
is  foundation  for  this  distrust,  and 
that  the  actual  conduct  of  affairs 
is  not  what  it  should  be.  It  will 
not  do  to  say  that  the  American 


THE  Great  Need  of  the  Present  Day. 


people,  with  its  practical  aptitudes, 
its  thorough  convictions  has  found 
the  solution  of  difficulties  in  gov- 
ernment better  than  any  other, 
and  that  its  own  country  and  its 
own  government  is  immeasurably 
superior  to  every  other,  can 
find  no  remedy  for  such  a  condi- 
tion of  affairs.  Americans  have  a 
supreme  confidence  in  themselves. 
They  believe  they  are  equal  to 
any  emergency.  Foreigners  for- 
merly sneered  at  this  quality,  but 
they  have  at  length  come  to 
recognize  there  is  reason  for  it. 
Surely  we  not  intend  to  admit 
that  there  is  one  difficulty  we  can- 
not surmount — one  evil  we  can- 
not reform — and  that  difficulty  in 
the  very  domain  where  we  arro- 
gate to  ourselves  most  knowledge 
and  the  clearest  conceptions — the 
domain  of  government. 

Laxity  in  attention  to  public 
affairs  has  become  the  one  beset- 
ting sin  of  our  people.  Our  gov- 
ernment was  founded  on  the 
theory  that  when  a  people  have 
the  right  to  govern  themselves 
they  would  neglect  no  act  essen- 
tial to  the  exercise  of  that  right, 
but  what  is  the  fact.-*  From  one 
end  of  the  country  to  the  other 
the  fact  is  proclaimed  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  intelligence  and 
higher  culture  of  the  nation  os- 
tentatiously echew  politics,  and 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
Now  politics  in  one  sense  is  suffi- 
ciently repulsive  to  explain  their 


conduct,  but  I  have  already  said  I 
am  not  using  the  term  in  the  or- 
dinary sense.  I  am  not  thinking 
or  speaking  of  it  in  any  other  sense 
than  that  intelligent  interest  which 
I  insist  every  man  in  a  republican 
country  should  take  in  the  mea- 
sures that  are  proposed  for  its 
government.  It  is  undeniable 
that  when  one  wishes  to  belittle 
another  and  to  signify  that  one  is 
making  a  trade  of  public  life,  he 
is  stigmatized  as  a  politician.  I 
have  nothing  to  say  in  depreca- 
tion of  the  epithet  or  of  its  appli- 
cation. The  point  I  am  trying  to 
make  is  that  the  great  body  of  the 
people  ought  to  prevent  any  one 
from  making  politics  a  trade,  and 
ought  to  take  such  interest  in  public 
affairs,  and  personally  demonstrate 
that  interest  by  action  as  to  foil 
and  thwart  the  designs  of  those 
who  degrade  politics  into  a  trade. 
Now  the  great  body  of  the  people 
will  not  act  until  moved,  and 
there  are  two  forces  to  move 
them.  One  is  the  self-seeking 
element  whose  purposes  are  sel- 
fish. The  other  is  the  patriotic 
element  whose  purposes  are  the 
public  good,  and  if  this  last  ele- 
ment is  quiescent,  apathetic  and 
indifferent,  the  other  and  base 
motive  power,  must  predominate 
and  produce  bad  government. 

Probably  the  greatest  danger 
that  menaces  the  working  of  Re- 
publican institutions  is  the  consol- 
idation   of    the    influence    of  the 


8 


The  Performance  of  Political  Duties 


money  power.  Concentrated 
wealth  is  the  dynasty  of  modern 
States.  Like  all  dynasties  it  seeks 
to  attract  power  to  itself  and 
when  suffrage  is  universal,  the  in- 
fluence of  wealth  upon  the  elec- 
torate is  as  pernicious  as  it  is  uni- 
versal. Of  course  it  cloaks  its  de- 
signs under  specious  pretences. 
It  blatantly  proclains  popular 
benefits  to  be  its  aim,  and  by  se- 
ducing the  people  into  belief  into 
devotion  to  its  cause  make  them 
the  unconscious  abettors  of  the 
mischiefs  it  inflicts.  Under  other 
systems  there  are  counteracting 
influences  which  modify  its  power 
but  in  a  republican  government 
the  power  of  the  plutocracy  has 
nothing  to  oppose  it  but  intelli- 
gence and  patriotism,  and  when 
those  possessing  these  qualities 
abstain  from  participation  in  pub- 
lic affairs,  there  is  no  check  to  the 
domination  of  wealth. 

You  will  understand  I  am  not 
here  speaking  of  wealth  as  the 
possession  of  an  individval,  but 
the  concentration  of  all  the  pow- 
er of  accumulated  wealth  to  effect 
the  object  of  its  own  aggrandize- 
ment, and  to  secure  political  pow- 
er. We  see  what  effects  it  pro- 
duces even  when  wielded  by  an 
individual.  The  acquisition  of  in- 
dividual fortunes  has  accomplish- 
ed results  in  the  last  decade  at 
which  the  nation  would  have 
stood  aghast  so  recently  as  twen- 
ty-five years  ago.     Most  Ameri- 


cans sneer  at  what  they  are  pleas- 
ed to  call  the  effete  governments 
of  the  old  world,  wherein  the  pos- 
session of  wealth  with  other  influ- 
ences, has  created  caste  and  con- 
ferred exceptional  privileges  upon 
those  possessing  it.  Our  school 
books  teach  our  children  to  scorn 
the  constitution  of  the  House  of 
Lords  in  Great  Brittain,  which  is 
recruited  alone  from  men  who 
have  rendered  distinguished  ser- 
vices to  their  country,  or  have  in 
some  way  displayed  conspicuous 
personal  merits,  while  before  our 
own  eyes  the  body  in  our  gov- 
ernmental structure  that  corres- 
ponds to  that  House  contains 
members  whose  sole  claim  to  that 
position  and  sole  means  to  attain 
it  is  their  stupendous  wealth. 
New  States  are  raised  to  the  dig- 
nity of  co-equal  sovereignties, 
while  they  are  in  fact  close  bor- 
oughs that  some  hitherto  unknown 
lucky  adventurer  carries  in  his 
pocket  to  return  him  as  Senator. 
But  even  this  is  a  minor  phase  of 
the  evil,  and  not  the  one  I  have 
in  mind. 

Diffused  wealth  elevates  States 
and  peoples.  It  extends  education 
produces  refinement,  multiplies 
comforts,  and  enhances  the  pleas- 
ures of  life.  Concentrated  wealth 
creates  castes  and  subordinates 
everything  unto  itself,  and  when 
it  operates  upon  the  electoral 
body,  and  corrupts  and  debases 
the  excise  of  the  electoral  func- 


THE  Great  Need  of  the  Present  Day. 


tion,  purity  of  government  is  at 
an  end.  What  security  is  there 
for  popular  rights,  or  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  general  welfare, 
when  an  influence  hostile  to  them 
permeates  the  whole  structure  of 
government. 

Seeing  the  evil  influences  that 
have  had  full  sway  in  late  years, 
some  have  despaired  of  the  Re- 
public. They  have  witnessed  cor- 
ruption rampant  and  acknowl- 
edged; evil  practices  cofessed 
without  shame,  practices  more 
evil  still  charged  with  a  good 
show  of  proof  and  a  public  look- 
ing on,  not  with  stupefaction,  but 
as  if  such  things  might  be  and 
were  expected.  But  it  is  not  in 
this  age,  nor  by  a  people  which 
has  tried  the  experiment,  that 
confidence  in  the  perpetuity  of 
republican  institutions  is  to  be 
destroyed  by  evanescent  difficul- 
ties. While  representative  gov- 
ernment is  extending  its  sway, 
and  its  principles  are  finding  lodg- 
ment in  the  minds  and  convictions 
of  nations  that  have  never  tried  it 
or  tried  it  imperfectly,  it  is  not 
here,  their  birthplace  and  home, 
that  the  experiment  will  be  ad- 
mitted to  be  a  failure.  Nor  is 
there  anything  in  the  present  out- 
look, unpromising  as  it  is  in  many 
respects,  to  dishearten  him  whose 
faith  has  been  temporarily  dis- 
turbed. There  is  a  manifest  re- 
awakening of  the  public  con- 
science, and  appearance  of  a  de- 


sire to  relegate  those  who  have 
been  conspicuous  in  employing 
nefarious  methods  to  the  obscurity 
from  which  they  should  never  have 
emerged.'' 

The  expansion  of  liberal  ideas 
during  our  century  has  been  in- 
deed marvelous.  Old  modes  of 
thought  seem  to  have  perished. 
Conceptions  of  the  universe,  of 
our  planet  as  a  part  of  it,  of  man 
as  the  highest  form  of  intelligence 
upon  it,  and  his  relations  to  his 
fellow-man  and  to  the  society  of 
which  he  forms  part,  have  been 
illuminated  by  the  discoveries  of 
science,  the  speculations  of  phi- 
losophers, and  the  disquisitions  of 
humanitarians.  Inquiries  into  the 
science  of  government  have  kept 
pace  with  these  explorations  of 
otlier  fields,  and  the  dogma  with 
which  our  people  started  as  a  ba- 
sis has  gradually  and  almost  im- 
perceptibly unfolded  itself  among 
modern  peoples.  Representative 
institutions  are  the  only  possible 
government  of  the  future.  This 
is  conspicuously  true  of  those  na- 
tions that  belong  to  the  Teutonic 
race,  and  high  above  all  is  it  true  of 
the  english-speaking  people.  The 
germ  of  free  popular  government 
has  expanded  among  them  with 
greater  rapidity  than  any  other. 
They  appear  to  seize,  intuitively 
its  true  spirit,  and  to  work  out  the 
theory  in  a  more  practical  and  sub- 
stantial form  than  any  other.  How 
different  their  reduction  into  prac- 


10 


The  Performance  of  Political  Duties 


tice  of  simple  general  principles 
from  the  vagaries  of  speculative 
theorists  of  other  races.  Compare 
the  noble  structure  of  our  consti- 
tution with  the  glittering  systems 
that  the  Abbe  Sieyes  formulated. 
Observe  the  good  sense,  the 
adaption  of  means  to  ends,  the 
gradual  incorporation  in  the  Eng- 
lish constitution  of  the  principles 
of  popular  freedom  while  retain- 
ing old  forms.  And  what  a  future 
does  it  unfold  for  coming  genera- 
tions. The  despairing  exclama- 
tion of  Alexander  sighing  for 
more  worlds  to  conquer  finds  no 
echo  in  the  hearts  of  English- 
speaking  peoples.  Their  own 
daring  spirit  of  adventure  finds 
new  worlds.  They  spread  out  in- 
to the  utterermost  corners  of  the 
earth,  fix  themselves  irrevocably 
upon  foreign  soil  and  subdue  na- 
tions unto  themselves,  or  so  in- 
sinuate their  modes  of  thought 
and  principles  of  action  in  them 
that  they  are  insensibly  (iomina- 
ted  by  English  ideas,  and  become 
one  in  that  great  family  of  En- 
glish peoples  that  to  all  appear- 
ance seems  destined  to  subdue 
the  globe. 

To  us,  more  perhaps  than  to 
any  other  nation,  are  public  vir- 
tues and  political  education  nec- 
cessary — necessary  not  only  to 
the  beneficent  operation  but  to 
the  actual  existence  of  our  insti- 
tutions. In  other  nations  the 
stability  of  the  existing  order  is 


so  guaranteed  that  fluctuations  of 
popular  sentiment  do  not  imme- 
diately or  radically  effect  it.  But 
with  us,  where  all  institutional 
existence  depends  for  perpetua- 
tion on  the  continuance  of  popular 
consent,  the  influences  which  con- 
trol that  consent  inevitably  at- 
tract our  highest  solicitude.  Those 
influences,  expressed  in  general 
terms,  are  right  feeling  and  right 
thinking,  and  hence  the  prime 
necessity  of  our  civil  life  is  the 
education  of  the  public  conscience 
and  the  public  mind  in  civil  af- 
fairs. 

The  great  practical  question 
therefore  which  this  necessity  im- 
poses on  us  for  solution  is  what  is 
the  best  method  of  accomplishing 
the  end  in  view.  Much  has  been 
accomplished  in  that  direction  by 
the  utterances  of  unpartisan  jour- 
nals, by  political  debates  and  es- 
says, and  by  the  writings  of  great 
publicists.  But  much  more  re- 
mains to  be  done,  and  what  re- 
mains cannot  be  done  by  fugative 
paragraphs,  occasional  debates 
and  didactic  tomes.  The  under- 
taking is  vast  and  necessitates 
conscientious,  patient  and  persis- 
tent labor.  Institutions  of  learn- 
ing are  therefore  the  most  effec- 
tive agencies  for  the  promotion  of 
this  good  work.  Right  here  in 
our  schools  and  colleges  must  be 
laid  the  basis  of  our  political  re- 
generation and  purification.  In 
the  school  day  season  of  life  the 


THE  Great  Need  of  the  Present  Day. 


n 


mental  and  emotional  structure 
has  its  highest  malleability,  and 
its  highest  susceptibility  of  per- 
manent impression.  We  find 
then  and  there,  as  we  never  again 
find,  the  organization,  the  meth- 
ods, the  appliances  and  the  sur- 
roundings necessary  to  the  gene- 
sis of  right  feeling  and  right 
thinking.  In  that  early  commu- 
nity alone  is  it  practicable  to  car- 
ry on  that  harmonious  cultiva- 
tion of  mind  and  heart  necessary 
to  full  and  complete  education. 
There  alone  is  it  practicable  to 
conjoin  virtuous  action  with  the 
inculcation  of  virtuous  maxims, 
and  that  leads  up  to  the  formation 
of  those  virtuous  habits  which  are 
our  best  assurances  of  correct 
conduct.  Here  then,  I  reiterate, 
we  must  lay  the  foundation  of 
knowledge  and  of  right  principle 
in  respect  to  political  obligation 
which  is  the  condition  precedent 
of  a  purer  code  of  political  ethics. 
I  mention  therefore  as  a  practi- 
cal corallary  from  this  proposition 
that  a  chair  of  political  philosophy 
should  be  as  permanent  a  feature 
in  the  curriculum  of  American  col- 
leges as  a  chair  of  natural  phi- 
losophy or  of  moral  philoso- 
phy. We  have  taught  in  all  of 
our  colleges  man's  duty  to  God 
and  to  his  fellow  man,  but  our 
schools  contain  no  provision 
whatever  for  tuition  upon  the 
wide  range  of  duties  growing  out 
of  men's  political    relations   with 


each  other  and  with  the  State. 
The  more  we  reflect  upon  it  the 
more  astonishing  the  hiatus  be- 
comes. Great  institutions,  pre- 
sumably embodying  the  culture, 
the  intelligence  and  conservator}' 
wisdom  of  the  country,  tender  to 
the  Republic  as  their  eleves,  fitted 
for  the  great  functions  of  life,  men 
who  are  ignorant  of  one  of  the 
most  pregnant  of  those  functions 
— men  armed  with  the  elective 
franchise  and  thus  entrusted  with 
the  destinies  of  the  nation,  who 
are  wholly  untaught  in  the  funda- 
mental duties  of  citizenship. 

This  is  a  crying  and  danger 
breeding  omission,  and  becomes 
more  and  more  a  subject  of  solici- 
tous thought  as  our  population 
grows  denser  and  as  the  struggle 
for  existence  becomes  more  des- 
perate, while  the  elective  franchise 
has  been  extended  to  its  utmost 
limit,  and  ignorance  of  civic  obli- 
gation is  magnified  into  a  standing 
menac5  and  peril. 

It  does  not  consist  with  the 
scheme  or  scope  of  this  address 
to  discuss  any  particular  system 
which  might  be  the  special  sub- 
ject of  instruction  in  the  domain 
of  political  philosophy,  and  yet 
there  is  one  which  is  so  general 
in  its  nature,  and  so  pervading  in 
its  importance  that  I  must  advert 
to  it.  It  is  the  danger  to  consti- 
tutional government  that  comes 
from  a  rampant  development  of 
the  democratical  idea.     If  there  is 


12 


The  Performance  of  PoLrncAL  Duties 


one  inculcation,  of  experience 
which  may  be  assumed  as  an  ab- 
solute postulate,  it  is  that  supreme 
power  cannot  be  safely  lodged  ex- 
clusively in  the  hands  of  the  one, the 
few  or  the  many.  Neither  King 
nor  aristocracy  nor  majority 
alone  therefore  can  be  trusted 
with  unchecked  power.  Each 
must  be  a  check  upon  the  other. 
There  must  be  checks  and  bal- 
ances. The  founders  of  our  re- 
public clearly  understood  this. 
Their  debates  in  the  great  con- 
vention of  1789  attest  it.  Never 
for  a  moment  were  they  misled 
by  the  fatal  impiety  and  falsity 
of  the  utterance  that  the  voice  of 
the  people  is  the  voice  of  God. 
They  were  not  so  ignorant  of  hu- 
man nature,  or  of  the  teachings  of 
the  past  as  to  expect  justice  from 
the  reign  of  unfettered  majorities 
any  more  than  from  the  rule  of  a 
single  absolute  despot.  They 
were  not  such  shallow  optimists 
as  to  believe  that  by  merely  con- 
glomerating a  number  of  imperfect 
and  simple  units  they  could  educe 
a  perfect  and  sinless  aggregate.  On 
the'contrary  they  knew  thatthe  evil 
tendencies  of  men  were  intensified 
rather  than  weakened  by  aggre- 
gation, and  that  they  required 
even  stronger  restraints  in  the 
mass  than  as  individuals.  They 
would  not  therefore  trust  their 
country  to  the  unbridled  sway  of 
many  erring  men,  and  instead  of 
advocating   the   absolute   rule  of 


majorities  they  combatted  it,  and 
their  keen  ears  detected  more  of 
Satanic  than  of  divine  refrain  in 
the  vox  popiili  dogma  that  cap- 
tivates by  its  sonorous  expression. 
They  saw  that  the  great  and 
abiding  peril  to  their  plan  of  free 
government  lay  in  the  majority 
rule,  and  hence  their  cardinal  aim 
was  so  to  fashion  and  formulate 
their  plan  as  to  prevent  that  rule 
from  becoming  supreme  and  ab- 
solute. The  fruit  of  their  labors 
is  that  written  instrument  which 
we  call  a  Constitution,  and  which 
in  the  perfection  of  its  details,  in 
the  general  symmetry  of  its  whole, 
in  the  political  wisdom  of  which 
it  is  the  highest  expression,  there 
was  not  an  exemplar,  and  there 
never  can  be  a  reproduction. 
There  it  stands  in  solitary  maj- 
esty, its  great  outlines  in  bold 
relief  upon  the  political  sky,  the 
wonder  of  the  age  that  produced 
it,  and  the  marvel  of  all  political 
thinkers  from  then  till  now. 

What  we  need  then  as  a  strong 
and  immutable  constituent  in  the 
faculty  of  every  American  institu- 
tion of  learning  is  a  chair  of  polit- 
ical philosophy  that  shall  have 
for  its  special  functions  the  ex- 
pounding of  the  practical  duties 
of  citizenship,  and  shall  bring 
those  duties  within  the  sphere  of 
moral  obligation,  not  only  teach- 
ing those  duties  and  instructing 
as  to  their  nature  and  sphere,  but 
imposing   their  performance  as  a 


THE  Great  Need  of  the  Present  Day. 


13 


sacred   and    imprescriptible    debt   performance  of  the  political  func- 
upon  the  coming  generations.         1  tions  that  appertain  to  citizens  of 


And  this  is   the  great  practical 
lesson  I   would  enforce,   that   the 


our  republic  is  the  important  duty 
of  the  hour. 


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